Thank you & a bit about the N&O editor

I wanted to post an update on what's happened since Aug. 9 when Raleigh News & Observer news editor and blogger Melanie Sill claimed the liberal N&O couldn't report on the loan scandal engulfing liberal talk-radio network Air America because: "We've checked our news services in recent days and do not find this story."

A lot has happened these past 2 days.

But I need more time to pull it all together. So please check back tomorrow after 5 PM Eastern.

Now, please read on. Thanks; and other important items follow.

Heartfelt thanks go to all of you who've pitched in and helped put Sill's "do not find" claim out in the blogosphere. You've given clear context to what Sill is saying. It will be hard for anyone to misunderstand her position.

There are the bloggers who linked: Michelle Malkin, Confederate Yankee, Captainsquartersblog, Palmetto Pundit, and others I'm sure I missed.

There are also the more than 140 of you who have either posted informative and/or appropriately critical messages at Sill's blog, commented at JinC or e-mailed me.

Be sure to go to Sill's blog here (her first post) and here (her second post). Read those messages. They'll tell you an awful lot about the Raleigh N&O and what's acceptable in MSM news organizations.

After reading them, I doubt anyone but folks like Sen. Kennedy and Al Franken will say there isn't liberal bias in at least one MSM newspaper.

Yes, there have been a handful of "messages" to Sill and me that we'd all be better off without. They don't belong in civil discourse.

But with more than 140 valuable messages --- and that kind still coming in -- well, readers, what can I say but thank you.

Now, I'll leave you with just one example of what I mean by a valuable message. It was left at Sill's blog. She's yet to respond to it, but she sure needs to. Here's part of it:

________________

In her first Air America post, Melanie said:

"We've checked our news services in recent days and do not find this story"

but in her second post (after many commentators told her where to find "this story"), Melanie said:

"I found the same stories on Air America that you all mention a couple days ago in Internet searches and by using Factiva, a paid service we use for research"

The commentator added:

I am so confused...
___________________

Let's hope Sill gets around to clearing up her self-contradiction and the ensuing confusion.